Venus Flytrap Facts (Dionaea muscipula)

Venus Flytrap Facts (Dionaea muscipula) The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a rare carnivorous plant that captures and digests its prey with fleshy, hinged jaws. These jaws are actually modified portions of the plants leaves. The plant gets its common name for Venus, the Roman goddess of love. This refers either to the plant traps supposed resemblance to female genitalia or to the sweet nectar it uses to lure its victims. The scientific name comes from Dionaea (daughter of Dione or Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love) and muscipula (Latin for mousetrap). Fast Facts: Venus Flytrap Scientific Name: Dionaea muscipulaCommon Names: Venus flytrap, tippity twitchetBasic Plant Group: Flowering plant (angiosperm)Size: 5 inchesLifespan: 20-30 yearsDiet: Crawling insectsHabitat: North and South Carolina coastal wetlandsPopulation: 33,000 (2014)Conservation Status: Vulnerable Description The Venus flytrap is a small, compact flowering plant. A mature rosette has between 4 and seven leaves and reaches a size up to 5 inches. Each leaf blade has a petiole capable of photosynthesis and a hinged trap. The trap contains cells that produce the red pigment anthocyanin. Within each trap are trigger hairs that sense touch. The edges of the trap lobes are lined with stiff protrusions which lock together when the trap closes to prevent prey from escaping. Habitat The Venus flytrap lives in damp sandy and peaty soil. It is native only to the coastal bogs of North and South Carolina. The soil is poor in nitrogen and phosphorus, so the plant needs to supplement photosynthesis with nutrients from insects. North and South Carolina get mild winters, so the plant is adapted to cold. Plants that do not undergo winter dormancy eventually weaken and die. Northern Florida and western Washington host successful naturalized populations. Diet and Behavior While the Venus flytrap relies on photosynthesis for most of its food production, it requires supplementation from proteins in prey to meet its nitrogen requirements. Despite its name, the plant primarily catches crawling insects (ants, beetles, spiders) rather than flies. In order for prey to be captured, it must touch the trigger hairs inside the trap more than once. Once triggered, it only takes about a tenth of a second for the trap lobes to snap shut. Initially the fringes of the trap loosely hold the prey. This allows very small prey to escape, as they arent worth the energy expenditure of digestion. If the prey is large enough, the trap fully closes to become a stomach. Digestive hydrolase enzymes are released into the trap, nutrients are absorbed through the leafs interior surface, and 5 to 12 days later the trap opens to release the remaining chitin shell of the insect. Large insects can damage the traps. Otherwise, each trap can only function a few times before the leaf dies and must be replaced. Suitable prey must be small enough to fit within the trap but large enough to supply enough nutrients. de-kay / Getty Images Reproduction Venus flytraps are capable of self-pollination, which occurs when pollen from the plants anthers fertilize a flowers pistil. However, cross-pollination is common. The Venus flytrap does not capture and eat insects that pollinate its flowers, such as sweat bees, checkered beetles, and long-horned beetles. Scientists arent entirely certain how the pollinators avoid being trapped. It could be that the color of the flowers (white) attracts pollinators, while the color of the traps (red and green) attracts prey. Other possibilities include scent differences between the flower and trap, and flower placement above the traps. After pollination, the Venus flytrap produces black seeds. The plant also reproduces by dividing into colonies from rosettes that form beneath mature plants. Conservation Status The IUCN lists the Venus flytraps conservation status as vulnerable. The population of plants in the species natural habitat is decreasing. As of 2014, an estimated 33,000 plants remained, all within a 75 mile radius of Wilmington, NC. Threats include poaching, fire prevention (the plant is fire resistant and relies on periodic burning to control competition), and habitat loss. In 2014, North Carolina Senate Bill 734 made collecting wild Venus flytrap plants a felony. Care and Cultivation The Venus flytrap is a popular houseplant. While its an easy plant to keep, it has certain requirements. It must be planted in acidic soil with good drainage. Usually, it is potted in a mixture of sphagnum peat moss and sand. Its important to water the plant with rainwater or distilled water to provide the proper pH. The plant needs 12 hours of direct sunlight per day. It should not be fertilized and should only be offered an insect if it appears unhealthy. In order to survive, a Venus flytrap requires exposure to a period of cooler temperatures to simulate winter. While the Venus flytrap will grow from seed, it is usually cultivated by dividing the rosettes in the spring or summer. Commercial propagation for nurseries occurs in vitro from plant tissue culture. Many interesting mutations for size and color are available from nurseries. Uses In addition to cultivation as a houseplant, Venus flytrap extract is sold as a patent medicine named Carnivora. The American Cancer Society states that Carnivora is sold as an alternative treatment for skin cancer, HIV, rheumatoid arthritis, herpes, and Crohns disease. However, the health claims have not been supported by scientific evidence. The purified active ingredient in the plant extract, plumbagin, does show antitumor activity. Sources DAmato, Peter (1998). The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 978-0-89815-915-8.Hsu YL, Cho CY, Kuo PL, Huang YT, Lin CC (Aug 2006). Plumbagin (5-Hydroxy-2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) Induces Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in A549 Cells through p53 Accumulation via c-Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase-Mediated Phosphorylation at Serine 15 in Vitro and in Vivo. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 318 (2): 484–94. doi:10.1124/jpet.105.098863Jang, Gi-Won; Kim, Kwang-Soo; Park, Ro-Dong (2003). Micropropagation of Venus fly trap by shoot culture. Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture. 72 (1): 95–98. doi:10.1023/A:1021203811457Leege, Lissa (2002) How Does the Venus Flytrap Digest Flies? Scientific American.Schnell, D.; Catling, P.; Folkerts, G.; Frost, C.; Gardner, R.; et al. (2000). Dionaea muscipula. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2000: e.T39636A10253384. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2000.RLTS.T39636A10253384.en

Heres why you should start your job search this summer

Heres why you should start your job search this summer There are plenty of things in life that we reserve for summers- going to the beach, swimming, and backyard BBQs are just a few. But what about job searching? If you’re in-between jobs or are thinking about a career change, you may be wondering when is the best time of year to plan your job hunt. Is now the time to strike, or is it better to wait until the humidity passes before ramping up your search? The truth is, if you’re out of work and need a paycheck, you might not have the option to delay your job search until the fall season returns. However, you may be currently employed or in no big rush to make your next career move, and are questioning whether or not to take the summer off from job hunting or get started immediately.Business is ongoing- even during a vacation seasonTraditional conventional wisdom suggests that the summer can be a challenging time to try and find a new job- many people assume that the pace of business slows during the sweltering months of Jun e through August, and that employees (including key hiring personnel) are more focused on vacations and weekend plans than staffing concerns. Businesses also might assume that the available talent pool during the summer months may be a little thinner, and choose to defer filling new and vacant positions until the season changes. What’s the net result? A job market with fewer openings and opportunities on average than cooler months. But does that necessarily mean that starting a job search during the summer is a bad idea?The truth is, although there’s much to be said about conventional wisdom, it isn’t always right. Like most things in the professional world, trends change over time. Many aggressive and innovative businesses not only fail to slow down operations in the summer, they actually ramp them up- especially if there’s a seasonal element to their industry. Also, there’s no denying an immediate need, and if an open position absolutely needs to be filled ASAP, you can count on businesses conducting a hard-target search for the right person- even during the hot summer months. Also, seasonal and part-time employment (as well as contract work) are more resilient to seasonal shifts, so if you’re on the lookout for these types of opportunities then there’s no reason not to start searching in the summertime. In fact, many employers ramp up short-term hiring during the summer months to offset full-time staff summer vacations, so keep an eye out for growth in these opportunities.There’s more opportunity to shineHere’s another good reason to consider summertime job searching- remember earlier when we mentioned that the available talent pool tends to shrink during the summer months? This temporary decrease in job seekers may mean that there’s less competition for the positions you’d be applying for. Furthermore, fewer active people searching for jobs may mean that you’ll get more att ention from recruiters and employment agencies, should you consider using their services. Who knew that conducting a job search in the summer may actually be a wise and strategic move?So, what’s the bottom line when it comes to job searching in the summer? The reality is that it really depends on your situation- your target industry, position, experience level, city, and luck all factor into how effective a potential job hunt will be during the months of June through August. But even if there are  fewer  opportunities available in the summer, that doesn’t mean there are no opportunities, and those who stay serious, focused, and committed during the summer months are most likely to be successful. Will you be among them?

Drama Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Drama Research Paper - Essay Example The author of the play â€Å"A Streetcar Named Desire†, Tennessee Williams, lived in a time when men were portrayed as leaders of the household and wealth was the sum total of a man’s personal value. The way that Williams chooses to portray his characters illustrates that he intended to portray them as outsiders. Stanley Kowalski, for example, is a simple man, who treats his wife Stella disrespectfully simply because she is a woman and therefore an outsider to the dominant gender. Her duties as a wife are to obey his commands and tolerate his behavior. During this period it was considered common for a man to be violent with his wife as he saw necessary in order for her to learn from her mistakes, particularly within the lower classes where violence seemed to be more prevalent. â€Å"Girls absorb the message that you just grin and bear it when you’re hit, while boys absorb the message that hitting by men may be appropriate to show love and power in relationships† (â€Å"Physical and Emotional Abuse†, 2008). After one of these ‘corrective’ attacks which causes Stella to temporarily leave her husband, Stella states to her sister, â€Å"He was a good lamb when I came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself† (Williams, 2309). Stella immed iately goes back to her husband even after being brutally beaten just because she feels she has to for her own support and in fulfillment of her marriage vows. The reader understands that today this kind of behavior is against the law and is not tolerated at all, and a woman does not need to be married in order to be happy, whereas at that time women were in need of a man for social acceptance. The dangers of outsider status is revealed in the desperate way in which women are portrayed as depending on a man for support. Stella states, â€Å"Stanley doesn’t give me a regular allowance, he likes to pay bills himself, but - this morning he gave me ten dollars to smooth things over† (Williams, 2311). She needs

QUESTION What issues of the convention of ministerial responsibility Essay

QUESTION What issues of the convention of ministerial responsibility do the facts of the above scenario raise - Essay Example The office bearers are answerable to the parliament in general and the constitution of UK is strong enough to keep a check on everyone who has power and who is holding the offices in various ministries. To ensure the departments and governing bodies work properly, the government has a set of rules, and the responsibilities of these ministries are known to the general public. Thus if anyone goes against the norm, it is noticed and pointed out by the general public. The scenario created in the case is a very interesting one. First, the family minister who is supposed to protect the family unit and its respect is having an extra marital affair. Then the minister of social welfare is not willing to accept her fault and as a result lots of people are kept waiting for their social welfare funds. Thirdly, the prime minister simply finds it easy to ignore the no confidence vote!!! If for a moment one believes that this could happen in the UK government and House of Commons, it means that there practically would be no constitution to stop the powerful from destroying those who are powerless against them. Well, thanks heavens, this is not the case in general. The case is a piece of fiction which is too far fetched. In the past we do have examples of ministers who have abided by the rules and legislations provided to them by the constitution. Constitution for any elected government is the supreme authority. With the constitution in place, the ministers have the guideline for them to work upon. The Crichel Down Affair (1954) is one case that proves the importance of ministerial responsibility. : "Crichel Down was a piece of farmland in Dorset compulsorily bought by the government for defence use. Commander George Martin, son of the original farmer, wanted to buy the land back in the 1950s now that it was no longer used by the MoD. However the Ministry of Agriculture resisted, wanting to use the land for experimental farming in a time of rationing and agricultural development. However, Martin, a former equerry in the Royal Family, had very influential friends and stirred up much trouble in the local Conservative Party and government backbenches. There followed a public inquiry which criticized the department's decision and civil servants, especially their methods. It was seen as an example of an over-powerful state. Finally Dugdale announced that Martin could buy the land back and told the House of Commons he was resigning." Dugdale's resignation went down in history as an h onourable, even heroic, one: a minister taking responsibility for civil servant's actions. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministerial_responsibility) The issues raised by the scenario: Keeping this incident in view, the question that comes to my mind to carry forward this debate is that what are the measures taken by the government to ensure that the ministers are able to meet their responsibilities Is it just natural that the personal affairs of a minister can be a real concern in the dispensation of his or her public duties What are the ministerial ethics we are looking for Do the media have any role in pointing the faults of ministers out to them Also, we need to know if collective Ministerial Responsibility myth or a reality With reference to the scenario stated, an extra marital affair, which is specifically in the personal interest of the

Changing the system of a video library Essay Example for Free

Changing the system of a video library Essay The current system is a hand written and hand handled by Mr Roberts. It is a paper database where all details of the members, transaction and return details are stored. Mr Roberts currently operates all the system by himself and he does this to keep a record of all the bookings out of the videos, he does this by pen. He finds the page in the book allocated to the member, writes when the person needs to bring it back in, takes the payment then gives the video to the member. When a new member joins Mr Roberts takes all the details down in his book, then gives the new member a member number. Mr Roberts has to check every night for overdue videos. When a members page is full, then Mr Roberts has to get a new page, this just adds to the ever-growing file of Mr Roberts. There are lots of problems with the system, it is very slow, it would wear down with over use, he cannot cope with the growing number of customers, He has to check every night to see which videos are overdue and hand type each letter and send them off the same night. This would be increasingly difficult when lots of members join. Another problem is that the videos all have to be numbered and when a video is taken out a card is put in the original case giving the video number and return date. The new system would have to display all the details of the members on one screen and show when last rental and return was. It should be able to show all overdue videos on one screen. It should be very fast and speed up all aspects of the shop. If the database is faster and easier to manage then the number of members will increase and therefore so will the profit. Jonny Sharpe Possible solutions Mr Roberts could solve all his problems by using a filing cabinet. This would solve all his problems with information handling. The advantages of this would be that a filing cabinet is easier to cope than a filing book, the disadvantages are that it is still based on paper and they could easily be damaged or lost. Another problem is that it is still time consuming and would not be any faster, if anything slower than before. Another way to cope with this problem is putting all the files onto a computer. The computer would store all the information easily. The advantages of this are that it would significantly improve the speed and ease of running the video shop. The disadvantages are that it may cost a lot of money and all staff may not be trained in how to use a computer A computer program could be writ but expertise would be needed for this and this expertise I do not have. The next best alternative is that you could use a already existing program such as Microsoft Access. The information would be stored on multiple spread sheets, the information would consist of all the members details and the video details as well. These would be good because they can handle lots of multiplications and can search through information Mark foster System Choice Microsoft office xp professional edition. Pcworld: i 519 Inc vat Any computer could be chosen as long as it has Microsoft access and a printer for printing reports. Software Justification Justify choice of software: Word: The program needs to handle numbers but word is very good at typing letters. Excel: This program would be ok for the video shop but there would have to be 1 sheet for the videos and 1 sheet for the members details. This program would not be able to type letters up and print the letters off. Access: This program is excellent, this is because you can merge the video details and the members details together to give records of loans. This program can also produce reports in letter form and print them off. Data needed 1. This database is for the videos, it should show the number code, name. 2. Members details should be shown on this page, name, address, membership number, telephone number, current video rented and the date it is due back. Design section This shows that I have made two tables to store information, one for the members details and one for the video details. I have entered 50 videos and 5o members into the tables. I have designed the system to alert me when there are overdue videos and to be able to book out videos and book in videos with ease. I linked the two together by making a link between the membership number and the video number as shown below. These next pictures are of my queries. They are update queries which update booking in and booking out of videos. They are linked between the two tables and display the videos booked out and the membership number of the person along with some details. This is my form design. The form is for a member to fill in to automatically add his details to the members table. This is my report. This is basically to inform members that they are in possession of a overdue video and they need to return it. Members have their own membership no and each video has its own video number. This way members and videos dont get mixed up. This is an application form for the video shop, members are asked to fill out basic details. Analysis 1) What do I need from my database. I want it to store information about my members, including their name, address, telephone number, membership number, date of birth. Also in each members record will be stored the video they have rented (its code, not its title to speed things up) and also the date it is due back. Customers can only rent one video per day and it must be returned the next day. I also want the database to store information about the videos, including its code, title, price, certificate and category, eg horror, action, comedy etc. I want a system that will let me book videos in and out very quickly, just by entering the members number and the video code. I also want a system to check which videos havent been returned and create a letter that could be sent out if it hasnt been returned after 1 week. Sometimes people forget they have it so this should be a polite reminder. If they havent returned it after 2 days, then I usually phone them, so I would need it to produce a list of names and telephone numbers. I will answer the other questions at a later time as there are customers in the shop. Regards. Mr Roberts 2) To collect data from new members I have a form that they fill out. They write on it their name, address, tel. number, and date of birth. I write their new membership number on it. 3) Each member has a membership number. It is a four-digit number, starting at 1000. 4) I dont use credit card details as there is too much security needed. 5) For new members I need two forms of identification, one with their name and address, i. e. a bank statement or gas bill for example and one with their photo on, i. e. theirs drivers licence or passport. 6) I havent got a password system. If you think I should have one let me know how you think it would work. The problem is that customers would have to tell me their password and other customers could overhear it so it wouldnt be that secure. Evaluation I think the final product meets the standards set by Mr. Roberts. The only mistakes I have made is that I have given the example members, membership numbers starting at 200 and they are only 3 digit. The final product can do everything specified in the design requirements made by Mr. Roberts. The opinions of the users would be on the questionnaire I made. The only improvements that could be made to my database is that I could maybe produce an automatic report displaying all the information of the member on a report whos video is late, instead of just having a basic template.

Narrative Essay: A Canoeing Adventure :: Personal Narrative Essays

A Canoeing Adventure    Although I was born in Texas, my father was transferred when I was just ten and I spent most of my impressionable years in a tiny village a few minutes from a national park.   This move to a rural area was an event that changed my life forever. Surrounded by beautiful forests and lakes, most of my free time was spent romping through the woods, navigating rivers in a canoe and camping in the many provincial parks nearby.    At the university, I came across a group of students who had never experienced "the great outdoors" before. Most of their lives had been spent in the hustle and bustle of big cities such as New York and Chicago. They wanted me to show them what it was that inspired me to head north every weekend with a truck packed to the brim with camping gear. I explained to them that the only way that they could experience my passion for nature would be to join me on one of my outings. They agreed, and I designed a four day canoeing/camping weekend for five men and two women in Algonquin Park, one of Canada's finest treasures. I felt that this trip was well planned (two months in the making). But once the trip was underway, it was evident that there were a lot of things that I hadn't planned for.    Four hours into the canoeing, our map blew out of the boat and could not be found. Our only compass was attached to it. Not having been on this river before, I had to navigate by instinct. This method takes considerably longer and nightfall was creeping up on us. Various hazzards such as beaver dams and unseasonably low water levels exhausted us as we pulled the canoes, rather than paddled them through these areas. Before we knew it, darkness had overtaken us and we were far from our designated campsite. The surrounding area was extremely marshy and I couldn't find any solid land. Taking a rope out of my bag, I lashed the three canoes together to form a raft and then anchored off for the night. The evening sky was clearer than I had ever seen it before. Sleeping in a canoe is far from comfortable, but accompanied by brilliant stars and the sounds of wolves howling from the nearby hilltops, not one person complained.

Children’s Overuse of Technology

Children’s use of technology most affects a person’s cognitive development by eliminating the time that children have for other activities like proper sleep, a basketball game in the park, or just a face to face chat with a group of friends. Technology is not a proper substitute for a play ground, parks or a chat with friends where a child can find unlimited opportunities to learn valuable information about how they fit in the real world. A child’s cognitive development is not harmed directly by technology so much as it is harmed indirectly by abstaining from physical activities, failing to get proper sleep, or not interacting with peers. A study by the Kaiser foundation illustrates the enormous time children spend multi – tasking each day through technology, â€Å"Today’s youth pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those daily 7 1/2 hours – an increase of almost 2 1/4 hours of media exposure per day over the past five years† (Henry J. Kaiser Foundation 2010, p. 1). It is not to suggest that technology plays no role in increasing a child’s cognitive development; it is to suggest that there is a widening gap between the time a child entertains themselves with technology and the moments that he or she allocate to alternatives activities. The benefits children receive from non – technology based activities are found in many research studies on cognitive development; for example, a study by preeminent sleep theorist Dr. Sadeh showed that the cognitive abilities of elementary school children deprived of just one hours night sleep would be reduced by two years the following morning (Sadeh, Gruber & Ravi 2003, p. 444 -445). Children cannot be engaged in interactive play with their peers, sleep or physical exercise which are so critical to their development, due to an overuse of isolating technological activities such as cell phones, television and video games. Children who spend too much time with technology find themselves isolated from their peers. Leading theorists like Jean Piaget understood the importance of peer interaction as a research tool that provides children with unlimited opportunities to evaluate other people’s concept of how to deal with situations that happen in the world. According to Piaget, â€Å"children gained knowledge about the world through their interaction with others and incorporated that information into cognitive structures† (Piaget 1962, p. 257). Piaget saw unscripted play as a way for children to gain new social skills by assimilating a peer’s new ideas and changing their understanding of the world to accommodate them. Children exposed to peer play gain the skill set which will allow them to progress away from an egocentric view point in which they are the center of the universe to a more abstract vision of the world that encompasses the morals needs of society. A child that has gained understanding of this is said to gain the social, emotional, and cognitive skills and behaviors that they need in order to be successful people in the world. Piaget would find educational value in any technology that allows children the opportunity to freely experiment with their understanding of the world. From the preoperational through the operational stage, children receive educational experiences even from basic technology like karaoke machines or cell phones that provide them the opportunity to test their language skills through experimentation. A child in the preoperational stage will use the karaoke machine in symbolic play to pretend to be a rock star. The operational stage children that are further along on their cognitive development might use a cell phone share ideas on what it is like to be in a rock group. However, the most promising use of technology to Piaget would be software that appears to emulate his theory of assimilation and accommodation. Indeed, Piaget believed that children learned best when a constant flow of information was acquired from others that either reinforced or challenged their perception of themselves in the world. An example of technology that might provide this is the game SimCity, which was marketed as providing people with the opportunity to test their knowledge of cities while learning to build one of their own. However, eventually Piaget would find games like this to be too restrictive in their opportunities for players to decide whether to change their self-constructs of city- life based on the limited real life scenarios in the game. The child is presented with or guided into possible actions by the software program and made to believe there are no limitations to the options one can take; however, software actions are very â€Å"narrow and circumscribed, and – what is even more important for the child – it is defined by the game developer and the manufacturer instead of by the child† (Provenzo, 1991, 1994). According to Piaget (1972), play can provide many opportunities for children to actively learn in a manner that is more intuitive than a direct instruction lesson. Piaget’s philosophy about play is validated by the following research. A study on rats that played rough with each other had a higher degree of neurotropic factor transcripts created in their brains’ cortexes than a rat raised in isolation (Gordon, Burke, Watson &Panskepp 2003, p. 17-20). Research by Diamond et al. (1966) on the thickening of a rat’s cortex showed that when a rat was allowed to freely assimilate and accommodate within an â€Å"enriched environment† (Krech, Rosenzweig& Bennett, 1960, p. 09-513) its cortex was affected profoundly as compared to other rats’ cortexes that were raised in non-enriched environments (p. 117-125). The research was designed to compare the thickening in the cortex of several rats’ brains raised in three different environments: one raised in isolation, three rats in a cage that emulated their natural environment, and three that were placed in the enriched environment. An enriched environment is defined as a cage that has enough room to accommodate the rats and toys that are added at specific intervals during their stay (Krech et al. 960, p. 509- 513). The rats were placed in the environment from 4 days to 80 days, and afterwards the cortexes were removed for comparison (Diamond et al. 1966, p. 117-125). A second set of experiments were designed to isolate factors like age or stress, which were constantly changing to reach the maximum thickening of the cortex. Data comparisons between the cortexes of the rats raised in the impoverished environments and the lone rat were measured, but not compared; however, further experimentation, in this maybe warranted in order to show the effect of peer play. In more play directed study, it was seen that rats that had played rough with each other had brains with a higher degree of neurotropic factors created in the brains’ cortex than a rat raised in isolation (Beatty, Dodge, Dodge, White & Panskepp 1982, p. 417-422). Another study of rats in social isolation showed an even more dramatic need for interactive play when a rat failed to respond with the proper defense mechanism when dealing with a dominant male rat. The study showed that rats that played with peers were successful in assimilating into society by using the tools they learned from peer interaction, much like Lev Vygotsky’s studies showed children did as well (Foroud & Pellis 2003, p. 35-43). Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed that a child’s learning process or cognitive development was not based on a solitary exploration of the world, but the influences of the child’s culture, environment or knowledgeable adults. Vygotsky’s studies were based on the significant improvement that children achieved on tests when they worked with an adult as compared to working alone. The test results for children working independently rarely reached the level of a child that had been taught by an adult. In the process of this adult guided development, â€Å"the child not only matures, but is rearmed. It is this â€Å"rearming† that accounts for a great deal of development and change we can that accounts for a great deal of the development and change we can observe as we follow the transition from child to civilized adult† (Luria & Vygotsky, 1992, p. 110). The times children meet with a knowledgeable peer or adult to learn a great deal of understanding is gained by the child. The growth of the child that works with an adult can be observed throughout their lives till they reach adulthood. Vygotsky would find potential in today’s technology and hope for the software technology of tomorrow that he would perceive as supporting his theory of the Zone of Proximal Distance. His theory states: â€Å"the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers [is greater]† (Vygotsky 1978, p. 6). The technology that was capable of teaching critical thinking, analysis and problem solving skills by joining them together to learn about any subject matter. Present technology does not have the natural language skills necessary to be able to respond to a child’s unlimited questions; however, games can guide a child’s thought process by the designer’s implementation of scaffolding techniques into the program. For instance, some games like Oregon Trail are appropriate educational opportunities for learning in the classroom. The game is a form of computer mediated instruction that uses information inserted into the program (scaffolding techniques) to help students complete the tasks that are important to perform an activity; however, it is limited in value since it does not allow children to interact with a knowledgeable adult or peer. Games that allow multiple players to work towards a common goal are available online and could be used to teach children in the way Vygotsky envisioned. Games like The Penguin Club or Halo are designed to allow children to work together towards a common goal; however, they are created to entertain and not to teach. Video games must be designed to capture a child’s interest and be tested to show how they improve a child’s education, or they will remain another example of a technology whose use is restricted solely to household entertainment. Other examples of technology that children use for household entertainment are described in the following study including which technologies are preferred by both sexes and which are preferred by a specific sex. â€Å"Children are far more likely to use technology for entertainment purposes to download music, chat on the social network, email friends or lay video games than do research on a topic of interest than for education† (Subrahmanyam, Greenfield, Kraut & Gross 2001, p. 7-30). The study shows boys and girls are likely to use the same technology for the same hours in school. However, after school hours boys were far more likely to play video games than girls. On the contrary, girls were far more likely to use their cell phones to text friends or communicate on the social network than their male counterparts. Both girls and boys still watched television more than any other technology. The study focused primarily on the type of technology a child used to entertain him or her self; however, the study did not delve into the effects technology use had on a child. Grant money has been expanded for research to investigate new social concerns about technology ranging from the possibilities of brain tumors brought about by excessive use of cell phones, desensitizing affects of violent video games on children towards real violence, and attention span problems caused by television and video games. A recent research study on the effects of children playing violent video games and their desensitizing effect on a child’s view of real life has challenged long held tenets of parents and researchers alike. Bowen and Spaniol (2011) designed a study to compare the emotional arousal state and long term memory of individuals that played violent video game as compared to those that did not. The participants viewed 150 photos of scenes that were designed to get a positive, negative, or natural response from the individuals. One hour later the people were asked once again to observe the scenes and this time 150 additional photos were added. The researcher then asked the individuals if they indeed had seen the photos previously and the results were recorded. Afterwards, the students were given a self-assessment test that asked them questions about their emotional state. Researchers predicted the results would show that the participants that played violent video games would remember less of the photos and have a lower level of emotional arousal. The study showed that the results were in favor of the null hypothesis and that there was no significant difference in the long term memory or emotional state of the participant that played video games and the individuals that did not. This study questioned earlier held opinions that violent video indeed caused children to be less sensitive to real life violence. Research by Carnagey, Anderson and Bushman (2007) evaluated the physiological response of individuals that watched a ten minute video showing real-life violence after playing their choice of a violent game or non-violent game for twenty minutes. The individuals that played the violent video game were predicted to have a lowerheart beat and galvanic skin response than the non violent video game watchers. The violent video players did show a lower heart rate and galvanic than the non-violent game players and were considered to be desensitized to violence (p. 489-496). The conflicting results help illustrate how little is known to whether video game technology as any direct adverse on the cognitive development of children that the concerns of society have suggested. Furthermore, studies on the effect of radio waves on heavy long term users of cell phones suggest different conclusions leading to question about its adverse affects on children as well. One study which evaluated brain tumor risk in relation to long term mobile use showed no increase in cancer in individuals that used cellphones excessively over the last ten years (Cardis 2010, p. 14). Another study showed that the brain glucose metabolism rates were significantly higher when using a cell phone causing concern that there may be negative effects from radio signals delivered to the brain (Volkow et al. 001, p. 808-813). It appears that additional research on technology is required, as was expended on television earlier in order to get a clearer picture of its effect on children. Television viewing time at a mean age of 14 years was associated with â€Å"elevated risk for attention difficulties, frequent failure to complete homework assignments, frequent boredom at school, failure to complete high school, poor grades, negative attitudes about school (i. e. hates school) overall academic failure in secondary school, and failure to obtain post-secondary (eg, college, university, training school) education† (Johnson et al. 2007, 481). The Research by Zimmerman and Christakis (2007) showed that six and seven year old children, who had watched an average of three hours of television a day as three year olds, had lower cognitive achievement scores on the Peabody Individual Achievement test for reading recognition and reading comprehension (473-479). Less sedentary activities that children do when not playing video games show a much clearer picture of the benefit they provided to a child’s cognitive development than any adverse effect technology does. Children who rode bicycles, played basketball or performed other aerobic activities at least three times a week for sixty minutes and spent an equal amount of time on muscle and bone strengthening workouts three times a week or more had significantly better grades than the children who did not (Coe, Pivarnik, Woomack, Reeves &Malina 2006, p. 515-1519). In conclusion, software technology as advanced as it may seem is not robust enough to support the theories of Piaget or Vygotsky. Advances in Artificial Intelligence for natural language would be required to make either Piaget or Vygotsky theories close to a real life learning experience. A computer game would need to be able to understand the thoughts voiced by a child and be able to respond to them fluently to recreate a real life experience. That software for video games is far from being developed. A child’s ability to learn from a computer as if it was a teacher is limited by how well the software developer provides guidance within the program to complete each task. A child will never get the freedom to explore and change his or her constructs in the world of technology as he or she can in the real world. In this day of modern technology and the information highway, it may seem ironic that the best thing a child can do to develop his or her cognitive development is to turn the television, video game or cell phone off and go for a bike ride.

A workout for working memory

New research suggests that mental exercises might enhance one of the brain's central components for reasoning and problem-solving.People may be able to remember a nearly infinite number of facts, but only a handful of items–held in working memory–can be accessed and considered at any given moment. It's the reason why a person might forget to buy an item or two on a mental grocery list, or why most people have difficulty adding together large numbers.In fact, working memory could be the basis for general intelligence and reasoning: Those who can hold many items in their mind may be well equipped to consider different angles of a complex problem simultaneously.If psychologists could help people expand their working-memory capacity or make it function more efficiently, everyone could benefit, from chess masters to learning-disabled children, says Torkel Klingberg, MD, PhD, an assistant cognitive neuroscience professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Children with at tention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for example, might especially benefit from working-memory training, says Rosemary Tannock, PhD, a psychologist and psychiatry professor at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.â€Å"It could be that working-memory problems give rise to observable behavioral symptoms of ADHD: distractibility and also poor academic achievement,† she says. Working-memory deficits might also underpin some reading disabilities, as it controls the ability to recall words read earlier in a sentence, says Tannock.But how–or even if–working memory can be expanded through training remains a topic of hot contention among psychologists. Some argue that working memory has a set limit of about four items, and that individual differences in working memory arise from the ability to group small bits of information into larger chunks. However, new research suggests that working-memory capacity could expand with practice–a finding that cou ld shed new light on this central part of the mind's architecture, as well as potentially lead to treatments for ADHD or other learning disabilities.Functional limitationsOne such study–by researchers at Syracuse University–hit upon the potential trainability while attempting to resolve a debate in the literature on the limits of working memory.Since the 1950s, psychologists have found one aspect of working memory–sometimes referred to as the focus of attention–to have severe limitations. For example, George Miller, PhD–a founder of cognitive psychology and a psychology professor at Princeton University–established that people generally can't recall lists of numbers more than seven digits long.Those who exceeded that limit tended to make smaller groups of numbers into larger ones, using a process called â€Å"chunking.† For example, people familiar with U.S. intelligence agencies would see the letter group â€Å"FBICIA† as two chunks, rather the six letters, and that set of letters would only occupy two slots in a person's memory, rather than six.In recent years, however, evidence is mounting that the limitation of working memory is somewhere between one and four information chunks.The downward revision results from new techniques to keep people from chunking information, which can create the illusion of greater fundamental storage capacity, says Nelson Cowan, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri–Columbia. In one common chunking-prevention method, participants repeat meaningless phrases over and over while performing working memory tasks such as memorizing lists of numbers.A recent literature review by Cowan, published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Vol. 24, No. 1, pages 87–185), makes the case that a variety of working-memory measures all converge on a set limit of four items.Other researchers have suggested that working-memory capacity is limited even further œto just a single item. In a study by Brian McElree, PhD, a psychology professor at New York University, participants underwent a test of working memory called â€Å"n-back.†In the task, the participants read a series of numbers, presented one at a time on a computer screen. In the easiest version of the task, the computer presents a new digit, and then prompts participants to recall what number immediately preceded the current one. More difficult versions might ask participants to recall what number appeared two, three or four digits ago.McElree found that participants recalled the immediately preceding numbers in a fraction of the time it took them to recall numbers presented more than one number ago–a finding published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (Vol. 27, No. 1, pages 817–835.)â€Å"There is clear and compelling evidence of one unit being maintained in focal attention and no direct evidence for more than one ite m of information extended over time,† says McElree.In an attempt to reconcile the two theories, psychology professor Paul Verhaeghen, PhD, and his colleagues at Syracuse University replicated McElree's experiment, but tracked participants' response times as they practiced at the task for 10 hours over five days. (See November Monitor, page 35.)â€Å"We found that by the end of day five†¦their working memory [capacity] had expanded from one to four items, but not to five,† says Verhaeghen. â€Å"It seems that both theories are correct.†The focus of attention might expand as other working-memory processes become automated, Verhaeghen says. Perhaps practice improves the process of attaching a position to a number, freeing up the mind to recall up to four numbers, he notes.Some researchers believe the practice effect uncovered by Verhaeghen reflects more efficient information encoding rather than expanded working-memory capacity. According to McElree, the respon se time measures used by Verhaeghen do not provide pure measures of memory-retrieval speed, and the changes in response time with practice could indicate that participants in his study simply became more practiced at encoding numbers vividly, he says.If Verhaeghen's findings can be replicated using other tasks, it could change how scientists conceptualize working-memory limitations. Rather than there being a set limitation, working-memory capacity could improve through practice–suggesting that those with working-memory problems could improve their capacities through repetition. However, practice would need to occur on a task-by-task basis, says Verhaeghen, and, as he points out, â€Å"It is doubtful that practice on n-back generalizes to anything in real life.†Stretching the limitsNew research on children with ADHD, however, might show tasks such as n-back can improve working memory in general, and could help children with the condition.People with ADHD tend to have di fficulty with working-memory capacity, and that deficit could be responsible for their tendency to be distracted and resulting problems at school, says Tannock.Seeking to alleviate such difficulties with his research, Klingberg ran a randomized controlled trial of 53 children with ADHD in which half of the participants practiced working-memory tasks that gradually increased in difficulty.The other half completed tasks that did not get harder as the children became better at them. Both groups of children–who were 7 to 12 years old–practiced tasks such as recalling lists of numbers for 40 minutes a day over five weeks.The children who practiced with increasingly difficult memory tasks performed better on two working memory tests–which were different than the practice tasks–than the control group, reported Klingberg in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Vol. 44, No. 2, pages 177–186.)In addition, the parents of child ren with memory training reported a reduction in their children's hyperactivity and inattention three months after the intervention, while the parents of the control group participants did not.Subsequent, yet-unpublished experiments build on those results, Klingberg says.â€Å"We have looked at other groups too: adults with stroke, young adults without ADHD, children with†¦traumatic brain injuries,† he says. â€Å"A general pattern [we've found] is as long as you have working-memory problems and you have the ability to train, you can improve your abilities.†Some researchers suggest that memory training may have more of an effect on motivation than working memory.â€Å"It seems to me that children in the training group may have learned to have a better attitude toward the testing situation, whereas children in the control group–who repeated easy problems–may have learned that the testing situation was boring and uninteresting,† says Cowan. â₠¬Å"The differences that emerged on a variety of tasks could be the result of better motivation and attitude rather than a basic improvement in working memory.†Or, says Klaus Oberauer, PhD, a psychology professor and memory researcher at the University of Bristol in England, the practice effect in both Klingberg's studies might result from people learning to use their limited working-memory capacity more efficiently–perhaps by grouping information into larger chunks or by enlisting long-term memory.â€Å"I think the practice effect [they found] basically is just an ordinary practice effect, in that everything gets faster,† he says.So, even if working memory can't be expanded, adults with grocery lists and children with ADHD may be able to make better use of what little space is available by practicing the task itself or repeating tests of general working memory. And, in the end, the milk gets bought and the reading assignment finished.Reference:Cowan, N. (2005). W orking-memory capacity limits in a theoretical context. In C. Izawa & N. Ohta (Eds.), Human learning and memory: Advances in theory and application: The 4th Tsukuba International Conference on Memory. (pp. 155–175). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Klingberg, T., Fernell, E., Olesen, P.J., Johnson, M., Gustafsson, P., Dahlstrom, K., et al. (2005). Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD–A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(2), 177–186.  Martinussen, R., Hayden J., Hogg-Johnson, S., & Tannock, R. (2005). A meta-analysis of working memory components in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(4), 377–384.  McElree, B. (2001). Working memory and focal attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 27(3), 817–835.  Pernille, J.O., Westerberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2004). Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training in working memory. Nature Neuroscience, 7(1), 75–79.  Verhaeghen, P., Cerella, J., & Basak, C. (2004). A working memory workout: How to expand the focus of serial attention from one to four items in 10 hours or less. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 30(6), 1322–1337.   

Logarithm is the exponent or power to which a base must be raised to yield a given number

Logarithm is the exponent or power to which a base must be raised to yield a given number. An example of a logarithm is as follows. In the expression bx = N, if b is the base and equal to 10 and N a number, equal to 100, then x is equal to 2 and is said to be the logarithm of 100 to the base 10. This is written: log 100 = 2, in which it is understood that log means logarithm to the base 10. The latter is also called a common logarithm. Logarithms that employ the base e, in which e = 2.71828 ... are called natural, or Napierian, logarithms; the notation used is ln, to distinguish natural logarithms from common logarithms (log). When a common logarithm of a number is written as the sum of an integer and a positive decimal (e.g., 2.3147), the integercalled the characteristicserves to locate the decimal point in the number, and the decimalcalled the mantissaindicates the digits in the number. The latter are determined from tables of logarithms, which relate mantissas to numbers. When the number is greater than or equal to 1, the characteristic is 1 less than the number of digits to the left of the decimal point; when the number is less than 1, the characteristic is negative and is 1 more than the number of zeros following the decimal point. For example, the number 365.0 has the characteristic 2; the number 0.005 has the characteristic -3. (l) Metaphor, that image which determines another image. (Rogers) (2) An association of a certain object(s) from one set with each object from another set (mathematics). (Rogers) (3) The normal or characteristic action of a system of entities, generally in time. (Iberall) (4) The variation of some magnitude that depends upon the variation of some other magnitude. (Iberall) (5) a notion that arises in the description made by the observer of the components of a machine or system in reference to an encompassing entity, which may be the whole machine or part of it and whose sta

Definition and Examples of Conjuncts in English Grammar

Definition and Examples of Conjuncts in English Grammar In English grammar, a conjunct, from the Latin, join together, is a word, phrase, or clause linked to another word, phrase, or clause through coordination. For instance, two clauses connected by and (The clown laughed and the child cried) are conjuncts. It may also called a conjoin. The term conjunct can also refer to an adverbial(such as therefore, however, namely) that indicates the relationship in meaning between two independent clauses. The more traditional term for this kind of adverbial is conjunctive adverb. Examples (Definition #1) George and Martha dined alone at Mount Vernon.The back of my head and the head of the bat collided.The dogs barked furiously, and the cat scampered up the tree. Take, for instance, the following sentences from The Revolutionist, [one] of [Ernest] Hemingways short stories [from In Our Time]: He was very shy and quite young and the train men passed him on from one crew to another. He had no money, and they fed him behind the counter in railway eating houses.​​ (Jonathan Cape edn, p. 302) Even in the second sentence, the two clauses which form the conjunct are linked by and, and not, as one might expect in such a discourse context, by so or but. The suppression of complex connectivity in this way seems to have baffled some critics, with comments on the famous Hemingway and ranging from the vague to the nonsensical. (Paul Simpson, Language, Ideology and Point of View. Routledge, 1993) Coordinate Structure Constraint Although a wide variety of structures can be conjoined, not all coordinations are acceptable. One of the first generalizations regarding coordination is Rosss Coordinate Structure Constraint (1967). This constraint states that coordination does not allow for asymmetrical constructions. For example, the sentence This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates Pat is unacceptable, because only the first conjunct is relativized. The sentence This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates is acceptable, because both conjuncts are relativized. . . . Linguists are further concerned with which material is allowed as a conjunct in a coordinate construction. The second example showed conjoined sentences, but coordination is also possible for noun phrases as in the apples and the pears, verb phrases like run fast or jump high and adjectival phrases such as rich and very famous, etc. Both sentences and phrases intuitively form meaningful units within a sentence, called constituents. Subject and verb do not form a constituent in some frameworks of generative grammar. However, they can occur together as a conjunct in the sentence Kim bought, and Sandy sold, three paintings yesterday. (Petra Hendriks, Coordination. Encyclopedia of Linguistics, ed. by Philipp Strazny. Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005) Collective and Average Property Interpretations Consider sentences such as these: The American family used less water this year than last year. The small businessperson in Edmonton paid nearly $30 million in taxes but only made $43,000 in profits last year. The former sentence is ambiguous between the collective and average property interpretations. It could be true that the average American family used less water this year than last while the collective American family used more (due to more families); conversely, it could be true that the average family used more but the collective family used less. As to the latter sentence, which is admittedly somewhat strange (but might be used to further the political interests of Edmonton businesspeople), our world [knowledge] tells us that the first conjunct of the VP must be interpreted as a collective property, since certainly the average businessperson, even in wealthy Edmonton, does not pay $30 million in taxes; but our world knowledge also tells us that the second of the VP conjunctions is to be given an average property interpretation. (Manfred Krifka et al., Genericity: An Introduction. The Generic Book, ed. by Gregory N. Carlson and Francis Jeffry Pelletier. The University of Chicago Pre ss, 1995) Interpreting Naturally and Accidentally Coordinated Noun Phrases [Bernhard] Wlchli ([Co-compounds and Natural Coordination] 2005) discussed two types of coordination: natural and accidental. Natural coordination refers to cases where two conjuncts are semantically closely related (e.g. mum and dad, boys and girls) and are expected to co-occur. On the other hand, accidental coordination refers to cases where the two conjuncts are distant from each other (e.g. boys and chairs, apples and three babies) and are not expected to co-occur. If the two NPs form natural coordination, they tend to be interpreted as a whole. But, if they are accidentally put together, they are interpreted independently. (Jieun Kiaer, Pragmatic Syntax. Bloomsbury, 2014) Declaratives Interrogatives Interestingly, an interrogative main clause can be co-ordinated with a declarative main clause, as we see from sentences like (50) below: (50) [I am feeling thirsty], but [ should I save my last Coke till later]? In (50) we have two (bracketed) main clauses joined together by the co-ordinating conjunction but. The second (italicised) conjunct should I save my last Coke till later? is an interrogative CP [complementiser phrase] containing an inverted auxiliary in the head C position of CP. Given the traditional assumption that only constituents which belong to the same category can be co-ordinated, it follows that the first conjunct I am feeling thirsty must also be a CP; and since it contains no overt complementiser, it must be headed by a null complementiser . . .. (Andrew Radford, An Introduction to English Sentence Structure. Cambridge University Press, 2009) Related Grammar Definitions Compound SentenceConjunction and Coordinating ConjunctionCorrelative Conjunctions

Summary response waiting for supermanby Dir. Davis Guggenheim Essay

Summary response waiting for supermanby Dir. Davis Guggenheim - Essay Example I was crying because no one was coming with enough power to save us† (Guggenheim). It is also documented that Canada was the co-founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone. He was successful in managing the private funded institution. According to the director, he intends the film to serve as an education reformer. Guggenheim links this to the â€Å"inconvenient truth† which attempted to take part in climate change reform. He concludes that the problem that he may face is the teachers union. The union defends its workers against any dismissals. Later he asserts that the only savior which he may have is the charter school system. Apart from the weltering of socioeconomic reasons, Guggenheim also explains why we are having this mess. Furthermore, he delves into the highly scholastic and even records of the charters. Thus, the real crisis among the American public-school education roots from the relative low pay which the full time teachers get. Thus, he addresses ways of eliminating some of the few incentives which is tenure instead of proposing for a higher pay. According to Guggenheim, his proposal will attract competent teachers. The director frames his film basing on competition. He implies the case where five children await for news about their admission in a charter school. They are not lucky, for instance, Francisco who is a Bronx and a first grader is among the 792 applicants who are eying for the 40 vacancies at Harlem success academy (Guggenheim). Therefore, â€Å"waiting for Superman† is a call to the arms. It aims at calling anyone who would like to step up and help fix problems in education. It is also a cry for mercy and help. That is, ‘someone calling to become the children’s

Use of Lexical Choices and How They Would Affect the Discursive Power Essay

Use of Lexical Choices and How They Would Affect the Discursive Power of Media - Essay Example People seek to reach their aims and goals by using power. In defining power attention must be paid to the fact that it is not something you can simply possess. It is rather a relationship between people. Power is always related to situations. Using power means having the power to persuade and impress through verbal communication. Pekonen (1991, 46) states that modern politics can be explained as a symbolic power struggle: the winner is a party whose language, words, terms and symbolic expressions are dominant once reality and the context have been defined. (Chilton, P. & Ilyin M. p 4) Presidential speeches are very important to society. According to Denton and Hahn (1986), the presidency is a rhetorical institution. Through speeches, a president leads his country and seeks to persuade the nation and society. Presidential power is the power to persuade. The rhetorical style of a presidential speech can directly affect the political speaker's aims and success. Han (1998) believes that the significance of presidential rhetorical skills has increased over the last 50 years and in part because of the media. This conceals some problems: when the style is emphasized, content may have only a secondary role. The images may be stronger than the message, and credibility may be more important than information. In this study, attention is paid to the (d) Meanings Aristoteles le of presidential power and per-suasion especially from the rhetorical point of view. (Aristoteles) Kress (1990) has introduced theoretical criteria characterizing work in the CDA paradigm which distinguishes it from other politically engaged discourse analysis work. (a) Language is first and foremost a type of social practice. (b) Texts are the result of the actions of socially situated speakers and writers. (c) The relations of the participants in the production of texts are generally unequal. (d) Meanings are the result of the (inter)action of readers and hearers with texts and with the speaker/writers of texts. They are always subject to more or less closely enforced normative rules, and to the relations of power obtaining in this interaction. (e) Linguistic features at any level are the result of social processes. Linguistic features are never arbitrary conjuncts of form and meaning. (f) Linguistic features in their occurrence in texts are always characterized by opacity. (g) Users of language have a particular stance towards the set of codes which make up a language. (h) A system of language is highly problematic in CDA. (i) History has to be taken into account. (j) CDA must be based on rather precise analyses and descriptions of the materiality of language on a close linguistic description. (Kress, p 84) CDA begins from the assumption that systematic asymmetries of power and resources between participants - speakers and listeners, readers and writers - can be linked to their unequal access to linguistic and social resources. The important unit of analysis is the text. Texts are taken to be social uses of spoken and written language. Critical discourse analysis focuses on a genre as well as on sentences and word-level analysis. The study of subject positions may clarify traditional values, ideologies and representations. When analyzing the cultural assumptions expressed in a text, one way to do it is to study the lexical choices or grammatical representations of agency and action.